Movies like L'Étape
The best movies like L'Étape are How to Please a Woman (2022), Diary of a Fleeting Affair (2022) and A California Christmas: City Lights (2021). If L'Étape hooked you with its romance and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWaiting for Bojangles (2021)7.3/10 from 372 votes
- NewestBloated (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchDiary of a Fleeting Affair (2022)Also in French
How to Please a Woman (2022)
When her all-male house-cleaning business gets out of control, a mature woman must embrace her own sexuality, if she is to make a new life for herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDiary of a Fleeting Affair (2022)
A single mother and a married man enter into an affair with the understanding that their relationship is purely sexual. Though they agree the relationship has no future, they find themselves increasingly drawn into each other's company.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA California Christmas: City Lights (2021)
Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLa Ronde (1950)
An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEverybody Loves Jeanne (2022)
Everybody has always loved Jeanne. These days, she hates herself. Up to her ears in debt, she has to go to Lisbon and sell her mother’s apartment, who passed away one year ago. At the airport, she runs into Jean, a whimsical and somewhat intrusive former high school classmate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadame (2017)
Anne and Bob, a well-to-do American couple, have just moved to a beautiful manor house in romantic Paris. To impress their sophisticated friends, they decide to host a lavish dinner party, but must disguise their maid as a noblewoman to even out the number of guests. When the maid runs off with a wealthy guest, Anne must chase her around Paris to thwart the joyous and unexpected love affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisChéri (2009)
The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good House (2021)
When wry New England realtor Hildy Good rekindles a romance with her old high-school flame, Frank Getchell, it ignites long-buried emotions and family secrets that propel Hildy toward a reckoning with the one person she's been avoiding for decades: herself. Based on the best-selling novel by Ann Leary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHe Said, She Said (1991)
Womanising, right-wing Dan Hanson and quiet, liberal Lorie Bryer work for the Baltimore Sun. Rivals for the job of new writer of a vacant column, the paper ends up instead printing their very different opinions alongside each other, which leads to a similarly combative local TV show. At the same time their initial indifference to each other looks like it may evolve into something more romantic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAnaïs in Love (2021)
A young woman struggling to stay on top of everything in her life meets a married publisher and begins an affair with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRendezvous in Paris (1995)
Three stories of love and coincidence around the theme of dates in Paris.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSitting in Bars with Cake (2023)
Extrovert Corinne convinces Jane, a shy, talented baker, to commit to a year of bringing cakes to bars, to help her meet people and build confidence. But when Corinne receives a life-altering diagnosis, the pair faces a challenge unlike anything they've experienced before.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoliere (2007)
Molière, a down-and-out actor-cum-playwright up to his ears in debt. When the wealthy Jourdain offers to cover that debt so that Molière's theatrical talents might help Jourdain win the heart of a certain widowed marquise, hilarity ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXX/XY (2002)
Three friends begin a dangerous three-way relationship that spirals out of control, leading to dire consequences that haunt them ten years later.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWaiting for Bojangles (2021)
A boy and his eccentric parents leave their home in Paris for a country house in Spain. As the mother descends deeper into her own mind, it's up to the boy and his father to keep her safe and happy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisL.A. Without a Map (1999)
An aspiring Hollywood actress, on a visit to a charming North England town, has a brief fling with the town undertaker, who also writes obituaries for the local paper. Returning home, where she works as a waitress at a Japanese restaurant, she tells everyone about the handsome "writer" she met on her trip. Unfortunately, he decides to follow her back to Hollywood, setting up the expected light romantic comedy with asides as the newcomer gains experience about the goings on in Hollywood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisEnemies, a Love Story (1989)
A ghostwriter finds himself romantically involved with his current wife, a married woman and his long-vanished wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Woman's Life (2012)
When the fun loving Marie sets her eyes on brooding comic book artist Paul, it sets off the kind of romantic sparks that quickly culminate in the bedroom. But the next morning brings its share of surprises as Marie crawls out of bed to discover her life flash-forwarded fifteen years down the road: Not only has she been married to Paul all this time, but she’s now the mother of a little boy the head of a powerful multinational investment firm and the proprietor of a fabulous apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower. Quickly Marie discovers that all her achievements have not brought happiness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane Austen Wrecked My Life (2025)
An aspiring author looking to get more out of life takes up a writing residency and finds herself in the sort of romantic entanglements that could come from the pages of a Jane Austen novel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove in Taipei (2023)
A young American woman is sent by her parents to a cultural immersion program in Taipei where she begins a new journey of self-discovery and romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWaterlover, Watercarrier (2022)
A homosexual movie about two strangers in quarantine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Show Me Love (1998)
Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGraduation Trip (2012)
Summer vacation of the last year of high school, Yu-na and He-yoon go to Incheon, deceiving their parents to go to a rock festival. However, the concert which they want to see is postponed until the following day. They have no choice but to book tickets for tomorrow and decide to spend one more day in Incheon. The next day, the tickets that Yu-na definitely held in her hand the previous day disappear. He-yoon contacts her cousin to borrow money…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Scratch That (2023)
Since his boyfriend left him, Yotam hasn’t slept alone. He developed an obsession for dating apps and spends his nights in the arms of strangers. One day, he discovers he’s been infected with an insufferable skin disease and realizes he’s got no choice but to stop his way of living for a while. His journey into the midst of his first night alone will find him and his obsession in very dark and itchy places.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Title 18 (2022)
An experimental short film made as part of a multi-media triptych, originally screened alongside a fashion collection and an art-installation. Drawing from Papa Yorick’s (Director and fashion designer) thesis “Men Are My Cumrag”, the film reenacts eight mainstay gay porn scripts, incorporating and parodying tropes and clichés, that explore masculine identities within the gay porn industry, through a satirical and critical lens.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & comedy
Matinee Baby (2024)
In this raunchy and outlandish queer comedy, best friends Robby and Noah-Lee – employees at Portland's historic Clinton Street Theater – find themselves confronted by a parade of increasingly wacky, genre-tinged suitors.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Bloated (2026)
Billy, a queer college student and hopeless romantic, gets swept into what seems like a romantic connection with a kind man. From a light and cheesy beginning, Billy gradually confronts the pain of unreciprocated feelings and blurred boundaries. In the end, he learns that love does not have to come from romance to be real — and that, for now, choosing himself is enough.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & comedy
Cupid (2026)
Follow Cupid and her new client Neha as they race the clock to find her a date for Valentine's Day. Will she find a perfect match? Or has it been there all along...?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & comedy
Mister Lonely (2008)
In Paris, a young American working as a Michael Jackson lookalike meets Marilyn Monroe, who invites him to her commune in Scotland, where she lives with Charlie Chaplin and her daughter, Shirley Temple.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSwannsong (2024)
A mother goes searching for memories of her son after his death and struggles with the truth she finds out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like L'Étape and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like L'Étape?
The closest matches to L'Étape are How to Please a Woman (2022), Diary of a Fleeting Affair (2022) and A California Christmas: City Lights (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after L'Étape?
Start with How to Please a Woman (2022), the closest match to L'Étape.
What is the highest-rated movie like L'Étape?
Waiting for Bojangles (2021), rated 7.3/10 by 372 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like L'Étape?
Bloated (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like L'Étape?
Yes: Diary of a Fleeting Affair (2022), La Ronde (1950) and Everybody Loves Jeanne (2022).
How are movies similar to L'Étape chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside L'Étape, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.